The British Museum’s Poor Judgment on Display

Putting a potent symbol of Western democracy at risk.

On Friday the British Museum announced that the marble sculpture of the river god Ilissos, part of the celebrated Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, had been loaned to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg to mark the 250th anniversary of the latter’s founding. It is to spend six weeks in the Hermitage’s galleries of Roman sculpture. Recalling the impact of the sculptures when they were first shown in London in the 19th century, the museum explained in its press release that, “The effect of that encounter with an original ancient Greek sculpture in a world used to Greek art mediated through Roman...

RELATED VIDEO

Opinion Journal: A Symbol of Western Democracy Loaned to Russia

Arts in Review Editor Eric Gibson on why the British Museum’s decision to loan a piece of the Elgin Marbles to St. Petersburg is bad for business, art and politics. Photo credit: Getty Images.